A federal court affirmed on Tuesday that the city of Dallas had the power to evict Occupy protestors camped out at City Hall, but Mayor Mike Rawlings later said no action was imminent.

That still seemed to be the case on Wednesday, with Occupy Dallas attorney Jonathan Winocur telling the media the group would be allowed to stay so long as they did not break any laws.

Ten hours later, things had changed. As with the raid in New York City earlier this week, police moved in after hours and tried to keep the media away.

The protestors had been warned prior, and many chose to pack up and leave of their own accord. But not everybody wanted to go gentle. One demonstrator who took exception to the show of force told the Dallas Morning News‘ Roy Appleton and Christina Rosales that the eviction, “would become as infamous in Dallas history as the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.”

Winocur also clarifed to the Morning News that the city hadn’t given any guarantees during Wednesday’s meeting.

“They said you should stay in compliance with the agreement,” he told the paper. “And they said they reserve the right to rescind it.”

The Dallas Observer‘s Robert Wilonsky was also on the scene with frequent updates.

Below, via Storify, a slice of how the night went down on Twitter. (Note: at 3:09 a.m. the Occupy Dallas Facebook page issued a statement disassociating themselves and the Occupy Dallas website from the @occupydallas Twitter account.)

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